personal paint job

So i was thinking instead of bringing my 74 nova to a piant shop and payin a but ton for black primer. Couldn't i just sand the whole car and do it myself with spray primer? Is this a good idea? Thanks.

- Nick

it take alot of work to sand the car and primer it?

No not the best idea, alot of work too, plus once you get it sanded to the bare steel, the steel will start to rust if you dont get primer on it quickly.

if you have a nice, dry place to work, it's doable..make sure you have everything planned out right though, or you'll have to repaint like im going to have to do this spring!

Primer is not water proof. It will rust thru. It needs to be catalized to seal properly

right now im stripping my paint down with some paint stripper and its a bitch next i have to prime it up and block it im goin to to just prime it untill i have the money to get it painted by a pro its alot of work and if your not up to it i wouldnt start it (im going to say it took me about 6 hours to strip each panel down to metal and its every messy)
travis

theres a paint thinner called jasco that makes the paint bubble off almost instantly

hmmm...where would one get this jasco stripper? is it something i have to order, or could i just go to a local shop and they'd know what im saying (first time for everything, i suppose!) oh..and any idea on the price range?

i just used some stripper my old man picked up from the local sears hard ware storeit works fines

Don't use spray pain tfor the love of god, it'll turn out crappy guarenteed. Take it sand it, do the body work, prime it, and rent a compressor/gravity feed paint gun, look online you can pick up some good acryllic paint that looks great and is easy to use come in kits, I got mine for 65 bucks, hardener and every thing, the rent cost is going to be 150, so 215 bucks for a paint job. If your pain is horrible, just sand to till the color of the pain is the dust you get, you don't have to go to bare metal unless your patching rust. I painted cars proefessionally for two years when I owned my body shop never once did I have to go bare metal, and I have five show winners under my belt. If this is your first pain job, use white paint, it reflects so much light pitting, orange peel are hard to notice when it is buffed. Go with a hardner coat, then pick up some clear coat, go over the hard coat and buff a few days later like three, it'll have a mirror finish to it.

I caution you about not taking the car down to bare metal. It is true that you can do a quality job by just taking it down to bare metal on areas that are rusty or need body work. However, if there are multiple layers of paint on the vehicle, it can be difficult to get the paint to all blend in on areas that are down to bare metal. A good rule of thumb is to take your fingers and rub over the "blended" area, if you can even slightly feel it, you'll see it gauranteed. In my experiences, especially if the car has been repainted once or more already, you might as well just take it down to bare metal, by the time you screw around trying to blend in everything, you could have had it stripped and not have to worry about things not blending in. It is amazing how thick a layer of paint/primer is and how easy it is to see if you don't get it completely blended. It will leave low spots in the paint and you probably will be disappointed with all the hard work you stuck into it. Sanding a car down completely is not a horrible job, like some of these guys are talking about too a good paint stripper works wonders. The only thing that I caution you on with a chemical stripper is to make sure that you thoroughly clean the vehicle off after using a stipping compound. It can leave a film on the metal and cause major blemishes in your paint, it may also cause problems in adhesion of your new paint. If you do go this route, make sure that you get a good cleaner like "Pre" from the Eastwood company. It is much like your average mineral spirits, but does not leave a film, which is extremely important for good adhesion of both primer and paint. Hope this helps. I do agree with the previous post about getting a compressor to do the final job, if it is something that you're thinking about making a hobby, go out and buy yourself a compressor, you can generally get a decent compressor that will have enough air to operate a good gun for about $300. A good spray gun may cost you another $100. Hope this helps you!